Numerous computer applications are available for tracking details of an employee's activities. These activities can include projects that the employee works on and the amount of time spent on each project. FIG. 1 is a screenshot 10 of a typical electronic timesheet. As used herein, a “screenshot” is an image displayed on a screen of a personal computer workstation or the like, at a particular point in time. Included in screenshot 10 are days of the work week 20, projects/categories 30, employee identification 40 and time entry period 50. In practice, an employee enters the number of worked hours into the appropriate box. For example, box 60 indicates that 1 hour was spent on the “e-Justice” project on Monday.
Somewhat similar in concept is a calendar computer application such as the one depicted in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a typical prior art screenshot 70 of an electronic calendar. Similar to screenshot 10, screenshot 70 includes days 80 of a workweek. In contrast, screenshot 70 is further divided into time segments 90. To block out time for a meeting or other activity, a user can enter the appropriate information to a block of time. This information can typically include a subject of the meeting, participants, location and duration. For example, calendar entry 100 is a presentation on ergonomics, takes place in the “St. Paul” conference room and will occur on Monday, July 15 from 3 p.m.-5 p.m.
Very often, time entries of screenshot 10 have a one-to-one correspondence to calendar entries of screenshot 70. That is, a calendar entry that pertains to a meeting regarding a specific project will very likely also be entered into a timesheet application since the duration of the meeting is accounted for in the timesheet application. As a result, information is being duplicated. First an employee enters a meeting in their calendar and then needs to re-enter essentially the same information in the electronic timesheet.
As a result of the above situation, there is a need for methods and systems to automatically fill a timesheet application based on a corresponding electronic calendar.